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Banners have been raised, commands shouted, and battles fought. Towers have been razed, Keeps overrun, and Relics captured. What we’ve long called “New” Frontiers has hosted hundreds of thousands of players over its lifespan who have fought tooth and nail for every inch of terrain. So long, in fact, that New Frontiers has been in use much longer than Old Frontiers ever was. Which brings us to the point of this posting: On December 12th, 2013 The New Frontiers Revamp is coming to Pendragon!

Below you will find our outline of planned changes. Click the ‘More’ Button to read on!

Please note that these are not final patch notes, which will have the finer details, but the breadth and scope as well as the ‘what’ of the revamp will be made clear. In addition to the forthcoming patch notes, we’ll be doing a live Q&A session to explain the ‘how’ and ‘why’ for some of our changes as well as answer any other questions you all are certain to have.

First, this revamp is only Part One. Part Two will focus on Keep fights, Siege mechanics, Relic bonuses, and overall Realm incentives for participating in the Realm War. Part One will focus on Layout, Porting, Boating, Movement, and RvR Objectives.

Second, we want to take your feedback into account before and after these changes go Live. We want to get this right, even more than usual, due to the magnitude and fundamental nature of these changes. Please submit feedback, hop on Pendragon when the changes appear there, and participate in our to-be-announced Q&A session.

Without further delay, here are the changes!

Keep and Tower Layout

The changes outlined in this section largely have to do with Tower removal, Keep and tower moves, and a few impassable area edits. Combined with the changes outlined in the Porting section, we hope to focus action into essentially the four zones of Agramon, Hadrian’s Wall, Odin’s Gate, and Emain Macha as the default state of the Realm War.

These changes are intended to free up some space, in these four zones particularly – well as the rest, in order to allow for greater freedom of movement without running into NPC guards and safe areas. We view these changes as necessary given the amount of players we expect to be traveling and fighting within the zones at any given time.

That said, the goal is not to prevent the Realm War from ever reaching the center zones or relic keep zones, but rather to require a more planned and staged assault of a realm in order to do so. And when that assault happens, still facilitate quick and predictable action around that invasion.

Players should first break through one of an opposing realm’s milegates, then establish a foothold by capturing the realm’s dock (more on this later), and finally by establishing port to one of the 2 remaining beachhead keeps in each realm.

Additionally, we want to facilitate predictable, yet still varied, action. Predictable can sometimes have a negative connotation but in our view here it is a positive. Predictable thoroughfares and locations that players can venture through and to in order to find action help facilitate player strategies and behaviors that are conducive to a Realm’s defense, offense, reinforcement, and general fun.

Conversely, in the Frontiers currently it can be too unpredictable at times where an invasion will occur or a fight will happen that players can spend too long running, boating, or porting around just looking for an enemy to engage.

Albion Frontier Changes:

Hadrian’s Wall

All Berkstead towers have been removed

Caer Berkstead has been moved further east against the zone wall

Erasleigh Outpost (4) has been moved north on top of the plateau.

Benowyc Guardtower (1) and Outpost (3) have been removed

Caer Benowyc, Benowyc Watchtower (2), and Benowyc Spire (4) have been set to a permanently “ruined” state with no guards. These structures can no longer be captured or attacked.

Porting

Permanent Portal Keeps With this revamp, one of our major goals was to facilitate a more staged, progressive, and predictable avenue for attack, defense, and reinforcement. This means utilizing the Agramon milegates as natural defense points and the island of Agramon as a major thoroughfare. However, Agramon can only work if players have consistent and predictable access to the island.

With that in mind, we will be introducing one Permanent Portal Keep inside each realm’s frontier with the following attributes:

Unattackable and uncapturable

Very High Level Guards

Open courtyards with no inner keep

Relatively close and equidistant to Agramon

The following existing keeps in each realm have been altered to be PKs:

Albion players will teleport to Caer Berkstead

Midgard players will teleport to Nottmoor Faste

Hibernia players will teleport to Dun Crimthainn

Portal Ceremony

The portal ceremony is back!

Returning the ceremony, along with the permanent portal keeps, helps give the Realm War a more predictable reinforcement pattern that will facilitate realm organization and grouping.

The ceremony will occur on the classic side of each realm’s border keep (where it’s always occurred) on top of the portal pad.

When /releasing in the Frontiers now, players will zone back to the classic side of the Border Keeps as well. We realize zoning after each death can be an inconvenience but it should actually help increase performance over longer play sessions and on the game as a whole as zoning clears out a lot of the excess data on the game client and server.

The ceremony will occur every 3 minutes instead of the old value of every 15.

The ceremony will port everyone standing on the pad to the portal keeps mentioned above with no need to wear a necklace. Because of this, apprentice teleporters have been placed just outside of the portal pad that will see to your normal porting needs.

There will be a teleport NPC inside each Portal Keep that will teleport you back to the classic side of the Border Keep.

Portal Stones and Keep Porting changes

Realm portal stones have been removed from the following locations and these locations can no longer be teleported to via the remaining stones:

In Albion:

Caer Renaris

Caer Hurbury

Caer Benowyc

Castle Sauvage Border Keep

Snowdonia Border Keep

In Midgard:

Fensalir Faste

Arvakr Faste

Bledmeer Faste

Svasud Faste Border Keep

Vindsaul Faste Border Keep

In Hibernia:

Dun Ailinne

Dun Scathaig

Dun Crauchon

Druim Ligen Border Keep

Druim Cain Border Keep

Portal stones in the Relic Towns will now only teleport players to the classic side of Border Keeps.

The remaining Portal Stones will function as before:

The center keep in each realm, permanent portal keep, and two invade-able beachhead keeps in each realm can be teleported to with the standard 5-second wait time

For the center and invade-able beachhead keeps, the requisite amount of towers will still need to be controlled in order to port.

Boating

In addition to porting and the layout affecting the flow of realm defense and invasion, boating is another important aspect. As such, the following changes and limitations have been placed on purchased boats:

Docks and associated NPCs in the Relic Keep zones have been removed.

Center Keep and Merchant Keep docks are still available.

Center Keep docks will only have boat tickets available that take players to the mouth of their own realm’s river.

Merchant Keep docks will only have two boat tickets available for purchase, one to each opposing realm.

The drop-off locations of the Merchant Keep tickets will be on the opposite coast from the Portal Keep.

In between Benowyc and Erasleigh in Albion

In between Bledmeer and Blendrake in Midgard

In between Crauchon and Bolg in Hibernia

The Merchant Keep docks will be capture-able objectives. The Center Keep docks will not be capture-able.

A realm will be unable to purchase boat tickets that take them to an opposing realm until that opposing realm’s dock is captured.

When a dock is captured in 1 realm, BOTH other realms will be able to purchase tickets and boat to that realm. In other words, when the Benowyc dock is captured by Hibernia or Midgard, both Hibernia and Midgard will be able to boat to Albion.

When a Merchant Keep dock is captured, the home realm will not be able to purchase tickets from either dock.

Players already on boats when a dock is captured will be able to continue their boat ride.

Merchant Keep docks will have asymmetrical encounters that control who owns them:

Defending realm Dockmasters will be protected by 2 orange-red guards and 1 red-purple guard captain. These guards will have a small agro radius and be stationary, but once attacked will have long cast ranges and be difficult for less than half a group to defeat in a reasonable amount of time.

When a dock is captured by an enemy realm, the dock will be protected by 4 red-purple guards and 1 purple guard captain. These guards will have a small agro radius and be stationary, but once attacked will have long cast ranges and be difficult for less than a group to defeat in a reasonable amount of time.

When a dock is captured, the opposing realm’s guards will immediately spawn along with their realm’s prescience node.

When an enemy guard contingent is defeated, the home realm’s guards will immediately spawn along with the dockmaster and prescience node.

Movement

With the removal of permanent boating and the focus on running being the primary means of travel outside of the portal ceremony we have some exciting changes coming to movement speed.

The Hastener NPC buff Speed of the Realm will be increased from 150% to 170%.

The bounty gem speed buffs will be increased from 150% to 170%.

The last level Sorcerer, Theurgist, Healer, Runemaster, Enchanter, and Warden speed chants will be increased from 156% to 176%.

Mount Saddles and Armors will now have a +54% speed increase attached to them.

When combined with a horse (which has a 150% speed bonus) the player will be able to travel at 204% speed – or the same speed as a Skald, Minstrel, or Bard.

Mounts will maintain their multitude of restrictions and disadvantages:

Players must stand still for 3 seconds to call their mount

Shapeshifts will prevent being able to mount

Mounts will not dive

Mounted players are bigger targets

Players will be unable to mount when indoors or underground.

Mount Saddles and Armors are craftable items in the Metalworking line.

Mount Saddles and Armors will all have the same 54% speed increase but will be differentiated by their art and use requirements:

RvR Objectives

Ruined Keeps

Ruined Keeps are meant as a break in the terrain and defensible locations that players in smaller forces can venture to try and hide from, defend against, or to ambush larger forces passing by. Ruined Keeps and Towers will also provide a Realm point and Bounty point bonus for fighting in and around them similar to normal keeps. Once again, there are no NPCs in or around these structures, the doors are open, and the keep outer walls have several holes in them.

Capture-able Docks

These docks provide a realm objective that rewards the capturing players with TBD items and other rewards and their realm with access to valuable boat routes. Preventing the capture of your realm’s Merchant Keep dock will also be the first step of preventing a full scale invasion.

Milegates

The Agramon milegates are largely unchanged with the revamp but will be much more of a focal point of action. They are each realm’s first line of defense and the first place to overrun when invading another realm. Milegate Doors will now remain permanently open. The guard house doors on the 2nd floor of the milegates will be more easily destroyed but still only function for the home realm’s players when they are up.

Minotaur Relics

Minotaur Relics in the frontier have had their locations and bonuses changed and one new one has been added. The restrictions on frontier Minotaur relics spawning and several of them requiring players to be grouped in order to hold them have been removed. They will always be spawned and available on the map now. The locations of Minotaur relic holders will still be displayed but the bonuses should now balance out this penalty more.

Uruz (Agramon)

Provides 10% bonus to RP/XP/BP/Coin

No mob encounter

Found in the center of Decayed Lands

Farsia (Pennine):

Currently 10% Heal Bonus

Changing to 50% siege haste buff for individual holder, siege lore buff to the group, and +75% siege protection for up to 20 targets in radius of holder

Now found on the plateau in between Benowyc and Erasleigh

Thatanu (Hadrian's):

Currently 10% Heal Bonus

Changing to 10% Heal bonus + 3% RP/BP/Coin/XP buff (both group-only)

Found in the same place south of Berkstead

Benun (Jamtland):

Currently 50% Siege Protection

Changing to 50% siege haste buff for individual holder, siege lore buff to the group, and +75% siege protection for up to 20 targets in radius of holder

Now found on the hill overlooking where Crauchon Outpost (3) used to be, behind the gorbachend encampment.

Individual Objectives

Doppleganger Quests have returned!

The Doppelganger Quest makes its return as a permanent feature of the Frontiers. This popular quest will remain the same in how it generally works except for a few very important changes:

Doppelgangers will no longer grant RPs or BPs when killed

The amount spawned in each realm will be increased to 6 at a time, from a potential 24 locations and 1 of 3 in Agramon.

Doppelgangers will instead drop a Realm-specific Shard

Doppelgangers in Albion will drop an Albion Shard

Doppelgangers in Midgard will drop a Midgard Shard

Doppelgangers in Hibernia will drop a Hibernia Shard

Doppelgangers in Agramon will have a chance to drop any of the 3 shards

/Using these Realm specific shards will grant players a random shard piece that can be combined with the other 2 types of shard pieces into a very rare item.

Albion Shards can be /used to obtain Shard 1 of 3 items

Midgard Shards can be /used to obtain Shard 2 of 3 items

Hibernia Shards can be /used to obtain 3 of 3 items

Players will need each 1, 2, and 3 shard pieces in order to obtain a complete item from the turn-in NPC. This will require players to venture to opposing realms regularly to be able to obtain these high-end items. There will be no leveling up or other process involved with the items once all 3 shard pieces are turned into the NPC.

ML10 Weapons, some ML10 armor, other rare items, new Mythirians, and rare mount armor are examples of some of the obtainable items.

The realm specific shards will also have a chance to drop stacks of rare alchemy components and siege ammunition instead of the item shard pieces.

The standard Doppelganger quest rewards will still be available as well.

Keeps

In an effort to incentivize the Realm War, we have increased the bonuses realms receive for keep ownership. Additionally, we’ve altered the amount of keeps required for each bonus since the maximum amount of keeps a realm can ever own is now 13 instead of 21. Finally, realms now start off receiving the first 3 bonuses listed and will lose them as they are invaded.

As you can tell from the picture, Darkness Falls access is once again only controlled by Keeps owned instead of both Keeps and Towers.

These changes and those yet to come are designed to improve the RvR experience in many ways. We are looking forward to this update, and it is our fervent hope that you enjoy the ‘new’ NF experience.

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Oh look, its still the same crappy map just rotated for the 3 different realms. Water and boats are still there in the frontiers too, thats another bad decision. Towers are still in the game? You would think that after that bad decision was made back in 04 they would've removed it to bring in more people. I guess keeping the same bad frontiers that drove the population away 9 years ago is still the thing to use for the good right? New frontiers changes = bad, keeping new frontiers = bad. The only thing that might have helped the population of this slowly dying game would've been the Origins server. That said server, with original classes, epic armos, old frontiers and the original realm abilities might have brought some people back, but instead these changes will just make the game die even faster. Congratulations!

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Arrogant, Condescending, Dismissive, Elitist, "Meany", you speak as if these are bad things?Still currently "subscribed" to EVE, and only EVE!!!"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon

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Originally posted by VladamyreOh look, its still the same crappy map just rotated for the 3 different realms. Water and boats are still there in the frontiers too, thats another bad decision. Towers are still in the game? You would think that after that bad decision was made back in 04 they would've removed it to bring in more people. I guess keeping the same bad frontiers that drove the population away 9 years ago is still the thing to use for the good right? New frontiers changes = bad, keeping new frontiers = bad. The only thing that might have helped the population of this slowly dying game would've been the Origins server. That said server, with original classes, epic armos, old frontiers and the original realm abilities might have brought some people back, but instead these changes will just make the game die even faster. Congratulations!

Totally disagree. New frontiers was a godsend at the time it was released. Perhaps you didn't play the old frontiers very much, but it was definitely *time for it to go* when they laid it to rest. It had run its course, and then some. Stop looking back with distorted, rose-colored glasses. OF is gone and buried, which is as it should be. I'm looking forward these changes!

They can adjust a game all day, but they can't help the issue between the keyboard and the chair.Played: UO, DAoC, AC, WoW, EVE, TR, WAR, Aion, Rift, SWTOR, GW2, TSW, ESO, Elite:DPlay EVE for free for 21 days

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Originally posted by Boardwalker

Originally posted by VladamyreOh look, its still the same crappy map just rotated for the 3 different realms. Water and boats are still there in the frontiers too, thats another bad decision. Towers are still in the game? You would think that after that bad decision was made back in 04 they would've removed it to bring in more people. I guess keeping the same bad frontiers that drove the population away 9 years ago is still the thing to use for the good right? New frontiers changes = bad, keeping new frontiers = bad. The only thing that might have helped the population of this slowly dying game would've been the Origins server. That said server, with original classes, epic armos, old frontiers and the original realm abilities might have brought some people back, but instead these changes will just make the game die even faster. Congratulations!

Totally disagree. New frontiers was a godsend at the time it was released. Perhaps you didn't play the old frontiers very much, but it was definitely *time for it to go* when they laid it to rest. It had run its course, and then some. Stop looking back with distorted, rose-colored glasses. OF is gone and buried, which is as it should be. I'm looking forward these changes!

I was RR8 on my spear hero before NF came out. NF was so great that it drove the population away in record time! I'm not looking back with rose-colored glasses. The game had its peak amount of players before ToA and NF killed it off. Mythic didn't know what they had back then until they ruined it with those 2 said bad expansions.

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Originally posted by Vladamyre

Originally posted by Boardwalker

Originally posted by VladamyreOh look...

Totally disagree. New frontiers was a godsend at the time it was released. Perhaps you didn't play the old frontiers very much, but it was definitely *time for it to go* when they laid it to rest. It had run its course, and then some. Stop looking back with distorted, rose-colored glasses. OF is gone and buried, which is as it should be. I'm looking forward these changes!

I was RR8 on my spear hero before NF came out. NF was so great that it drove the population away in record time! I'm not looking back with rose-colored glasses. The game had its peak amount of players before ToA and NF killed it off. Mythic didn't know what they had back then until they ruined it with those 2 said bad expansions.

You're misremembering. The population was already starting to go down and people were clamoring for an OF revamp. If they didn't make the change from the worn-out OF, the population drop would have gotten worse.

They can adjust a game all day, but they can't help the issue between the keyboard and the chair.Played: UO, DAoC, AC, WoW, EVE, TR, WAR, Aion, Rift, SWTOR, GW2, TSW, ESO, Elite:DPlay EVE for free for 21 days

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Originally posted by Vladamyre

Originally posted by Boardwalker

Originally posted by VladamyreOh look, its still the same crappy map just rotated for the 3 different realms. Water and boats are still there in the frontiers too, thats another bad decision. Towers are still in the game? You would think that after that bad decision was made back in 04 they would've removed it to bring in more people. I guess keeping the same bad frontiers that drove the population away 9 years ago is still the thing to use for the good right? New frontiers changes = bad, keeping new frontiers = bad. The only thing that might have helped the population of this slowly dying game would've been the Origins server. That said server, with original classes, epic armos, old frontiers and the original realm abilities might have brought some people back, but instead these changes will just make the game die even faster. Congratulations!

Totally disagree. New frontiers was a godsend at the time it was released. Perhaps you didn't play the old frontiers very much, but it was definitely *time for it to go* when they laid it to rest. It had run its course, and then some. Stop looking back with distorted, rose-colored glasses. OF is gone and buried, which is as it should be. I'm looking forward these changes!

I was RR8 on my spear hero before NF came out. NF was so great that it drove the population away in record time! I'm not looking back with rose-colored glasses. The game had its peak amount of players before ToA and NF killed it off. Mythic didn't know what they had back then until they ruined it with those 2 said bad expansions.

As an on-going tester for six years after release with mains and home being Pendragon long before character copies and level bumps, I agree as do the vast majority of original testers that NF ruined RvR. The Berserker axe nerf along with TOA put the nail in the coffin. There will never again be as good a RvR/PvP game as DAOC was pre-NF period. It has been repeatedly proven time and again with every craptastic game since.

“Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.” ~ Italian proverb

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Originally posted by sonicbrew

As an on-going tester for six years after release with mains and home being Pendragon long before character copies and level bumps, I agree as do the vast majority of original testers that NF ruined RvR. The Berserker axe nerf along with TOA put the nail in the coffin. There will never again be as good a RvR/PvP game as DAOC was pre-NF period. It has been repeatedly proven time and again with every craptastic game since.

Disagree. OF had run its course, and them some. It was absolutely time for a change. NF came at the right moment in the game. Of course not everyone liked it--some players like to bitch and moan whenever something changes the way they have to play, while others simply didn't rvr enough, or were new to the game and didn't understand the condition of rvr.

I too played DAoC as a tester and for the first 7 years of the game, but it's not about spewing credentials, it's about recognizing the true state of the game at the time.

They can adjust a game all day, but they can't help the issue between the keyboard and the chair.Played: UO, DAoC, AC, WoW, EVE, TR, WAR, Aion, Rift, SWTOR, GW2, TSW, ESO, Elite:DPlay EVE for free for 21 days

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Originally posted by sonicbrew

Originally posted by Vladamyre

Originally posted by Boardwalker

Originally posted by VladamyreOh look, its still the same crappy map just rotated for the 3 different realms. Water and boats are still there in the frontiers too, thats another bad decision. Towers are still in the game? You would think that after that bad decision was made back in 04 they would've removed it to bring in more people. I guess keeping the same bad frontiers that drove the population away 9 years ago is still the thing to use for the good right? New frontiers changes = bad, keeping new frontiers = bad. The only thing that might have helped the population of this slowly dying game would've been the Origins server. That said server, with original classes, epic armos, old frontiers and the original realm abilities might have brought some people back, but instead these changes will just make the game die even faster. Congratulations!

Totally disagree. New frontiers was a godsend at the time it was released. Perhaps you didn't play the old frontiers very much, but it was definitely *time for it to go* when they laid it to rest. It had run its course, and then some. Stop looking back with distorted, rose-colored glasses. OF is gone and buried, which is as it should be. I'm looking forward these changes!

I was RR8 on my spear hero before NF came out. NF was so great that it drove the population away in record time! I'm not looking back with rose-colored glasses. The game had its peak amount of players before ToA and NF killed it off. Mythic didn't know what they had back then until they ruined it with those 2 said bad expansions.

As an on-going tester for six years after release with mains and home being Pendragon long before character copies and level bumps, I agree as do the vast majority of original testers that NF ruined RvR. The Berserker axe nerf along with TOA put the nail in the coffin. There will never again be as good a RvR/PvP game as DAOC was pre-NF period. It has been repeatedly proven time and again with every craptastic game since.

AGREE.

I was the first level 50 world wide in 10 days RL time(not /played) , right before the first patch that nerfed Rangers/Druids(2 weeks after release) and was first RR6 (Sneakshot MLF server,Guild was House of Sagacious).

One of the things that killed the game for me was the insta teleport to keeps for defenders , not bad by itself, but coupled with ToA's PvE gear grind that affected RvR I was done.

The peak for DAoC was the summer of 03' but once ToA hit a few months later and people realized the affect PvE ToA gear had on RvR(PvP) the game began to bleed subs.

Hell, MJ, if he's still lurking about these boards will tell you the same.

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Originally posted by Boardwalker

Originally posted by sonicbrew

As an on-going tester for six years after release with mains and home being Pendragon long before character copies and level bumps, I agree as do the vast majority of original testers that NF ruined RvR. The Berserker axe nerf along with TOA put the nail in the coffin. There will never again be as good a RvR/PvP game as DAOC was pre-NF period. It has been repeatedly proven time and again with every craptastic game since.

Disagree. OF had run its course, and them some. It was absolutely time for a change. NF came at the right moment in the game. Of course not everyone liked it--some players like to bitch and moan whenever something changes the way they have to play, while others simply didn't rvr enough, or were new to the game and didn't understand the condition of rvr.

I too played DAoC as a tester and for the first 7 years of the game, but it's not about spewing credentials, it's about recognizing the true state of the game at the time.

This is the usual post you get from the common everyday zerger that was RR3 or RR4 tops before NF came out. It had to change because they were tired of being rolled by good 8 man groups, like the one I ran with on a nightly basis. Everyone that wanted NF to stay was a zerger lol, and those that didn't want the changes were the good 8 mans. Notice how the game is almost a pure zergfest today, with minimal 8 mans roaming? ToA + NF = 200k loss of playerbase. Although according to the zerger that I quoted, it had to happen.

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Originally posted by Boardwalker

Originally posted by sonicbrew

As an on-going tester for six years after release with mains and home being Pendragon long before character copies and level bumps, I agree as do the vast majority of original testers that NF ruined RvR. The Berserker axe nerf along with TOA put the nail in the coffin. There will never again be as good a RvR/PvP game as DAOC was pre-NF period. It has been repeatedly proven time and again with every craptastic game since.

Disagree. OF had run its course, and them some. It was absolutely time for a change. NF came at the right moment in the game. Of course not everyone liked it--some players like to bitch and moan whenever something changes the way they have to play, while others simply didn't rvr enough, or were new to the game and didn't understand the condition of rvr.

I too played DAoC as a tester and for the first 7 years of the game, but it's not about spewing credentials, it's about recognizing the true state of the game at the time.

I'll bite. I never posted what I did to spew credentials but it's nice you see it that way. I can point to many people I ran with and I knew pretty much everyone that was on the testing team. They would all agree with what I said. If you want to be the 1% to spew something different your entitled to by all means. I posted what killed the game for me and 99% of the after release tester base that was paying a sub fee while eating PR crap from MJ and the rest. I would like to know what guild you belonged to and what your main on Pendragon was? Because the consensus was across the board; NF and TOA killed DAOC.

“Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.” ~ Italian proverb

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I am on this great site a lot exploring mmo's and I check up on DAoC from time to time and I came across this post. I don't know if I have ever posted on any of these forums before, but this one I had to comment on. (Guess I have a few times)

My entire guild feels the same as I do on this topic. We all played DAoC for many years. It was the combination of ToA and NF that killed the game. ToA was bad enough, but when NF was released that was the nail in the coffin. We don't understand why EA/Mythic wont release a Classic + SI server with Old Frontiers. In the first week they would make an entire years worth of what they do now. Is it pride? Is it red tape? I think many players would like an explanation so they can have some closure. The general thought amongst my guild as to why they implemented ToA was that WoW scared them and the same with NF and FF11. I don't think WoW would have been as big is it was if it wasn't for ToA and NF.

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All I can remember about OF was all the mids on our server sat at Emain mile gates (they had the population on our server) and were the zergers that aoe blasted the mile gates to prevent anything that came thru. OF ran its course and sucked terribly if you were under populated. (being the only alb server that was underpopd) I was even in gank groups and a few of us ran radar back then. Although it really wasn't needed when you came up on a mile gate.

NF didn't hurt it too much from what I saw but ToA Neutered it. At that point our albion realm hated each other more than the enemy realms and there was a lot of IRC spying from the "Leader Role" guilds, that in turn bled over into the TOA 80 man raid groups where no one could get along for any amount of time.

Catacombs was somewhat fun for awhile.

Cons:

baseline stun, banshees, and animists and the engineer that designed all of the mentioned that they fired a little too late ruined the game in pvp. The banshee train pulling up to a tower or keep and AOEing the walls and it bleeding thru killing everyone was a huge hit! Damn Prime Rib expansion classes sucked.

I would go back IF:

I didn't have to spend 15 bucks a month for an outdated game engine with an ancient interrupt code and ugly skins

I didn't have to spend 20 bucks to pull each char I want on my account off the "retired" servers

I didn't have to log into an Origins account and then a Mythic account and the 2 pws never seem to match with what I always write down

It finally went FTP.

My suggestion- Make a BF type setup game with the skins of DAoC classes and unlocks per rank and trash the trivial crap.

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Originally posted by syrion

I am on this great site a lot exploring mmo's and I check up on DAoC from time to time and I came across this post. I don't know if I have ever posted on any of these forums before, but this one I had to comment on. (Guess I have a few times)

My entire guild feels the same as I do on this topic. We all played DAoC for many years. It was the combination of ToA and NF that killed the game. ToA was bad enough, but when NF was released that was the nail in the coffin. We don't understand why EA/Mythic wont release a Classic + SI server with Old Frontiers. In the first week they would make an entire years worth of what they do now. Is it pride? Is it red tape? I think many players would like an explanation so they can have some closure. The general thought amongst my guild as to why they implemented ToA was that WoW scared them and the same with NF and FF11. I don't think WoW would have been as big is it was if it wasn't for ToA and NF.

I don't know about having much of an effect on WOW but I agree with everything else.

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Now if only the PvE wasn't entirely broken and turned into an instanced WoW clone, and the classes hadn't been destroyed by feature creep, requiring 4 hotbars each.

And people seem to be forgetting the two biggest impacts to the game outside of ToA. /level 20 and the Catacombs expansion.

Those two combined destroyed the game for new players. There were no veterans around to group with or show them the ropes, and Catacombs encouraged you to solo quest grind like all the other WoW clones and broke the community's back.

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Originally posted by syrion

I am on this great site a lot exploring mmo's and I check up on DAoC from time to time and I came across this post. I don't know if I have ever posted on any of these forums before, but this one I had to comment on. (Guess I have a few times)

My entire guild feels the same as I do on this topic. We all played DAoC for many years. It was the combination of ToA and NF that killed the game. ToA was bad enough, but when NF was released that was the nail in the coffin. We don't understand why EA/Mythic wont release a Classic + SI server with Old Frontiers. In the first week they would make an entire years worth of what they do now. Is it pride? Is it red tape? I think many players would like an explanation so they can have some closure. The general thought amongst my guild as to why they implemented ToA was that WoW scared them and the same with NF and FF11. I don't think WoW would have been as big is it was if it wasn't for ToA and NF.

Bringing back a classic server, just the original classes, with old frontiers would be the only way to bring back some people to the game. With our without SI it would actually get a good amount of people back to the game. Keeping new frontiers isn't going to help it at this stage. I haven't rvr'ed on a level 50 toon since before NF came out, I just can't bring myself to stay in NF for more then a minute or 2 before logging off. The free game card I got as a birthday gift from a friend expires on Christmas day, I won't be paying for the game myself at this stage since all I play are the battlegrounds.

Porting Changes

The following existing keeps in each realm have been altered to be Portal Keeps:

Albion players will teleport to Caer BerksteadMidgard players will teleport to Nottmoor FasteHibernia players will teleport to Dun Crimthainn

These keeps have the following attributes:

Unattackable and uncapturable

Very High Level Guards

Open courtyards with no inner keep

Relatively close and equidistant to Agramon

Siege weapons cannot be deployed around them

Captured relics will drop to the ground when relic holders approach the PKs

A portal stone inside that will teleport players to their realm’s centrally located keep, their Border Keeps, and any captured beach-head keeps in enemy realms

o It will be possible to port back to the PK from the centrally located keep in each realm and any captured keeps in enemy realms

o It will not be possible to port back to the PK from the Border Keeps

Portal Ceremony

The portal ceremony has been reintroduced as the main means players can be teleported to the new PKs

The ceremony will occur on the classic side of each realm’s border keep (where it’s always occurred) on top of the portal pad

When /releasing in the Frontiers now, players will zone back to the classic side of the Border Keeps as well. We realize zoning after each death can be an inconvenience but it should actually help increase performance over longer play sessions and on the game as a whole as zoning clears out a lot of the excess data on the game client and server

The ceremony will occur every 3 minutes instead of the old value of every 15

The ceremony will port everyone standing on the pad to the portal keeps mentioned above with no need to wear a necklace. Because of this, apprentice teleporters have been placed just outside of the portal pad that will see to your normal porting needs

Portal Stones and Keep Porting changes

Realm portal stones have been removed from the following locations and these locations can no longer be teleported to via the remaining stones:

In Albion: Caer Renaris Caer Hurbury Caer Benowyc

In Midgard: Fensalir Faste Arvakr Faste Bledmeer Faste

In Hibernia: Dun Ailinne Dun Scathaig Dun Crauchon

Realm portal stones have been removed from the following locations and these locations can no longer be teleported from:

Castle Sauvage Border Keep Snowdonia Border Keep

Svasud Faste Border Keep Vindsaul Faste Border Keep

Druim Ligen Border Keep Druim Cain Border Keep

Portal stones in the Relic Towns will only teleport players to the classic side of Border Keeps now

The remaining Portal Stones will function as before:

The center keep in each realm, permanent portal keep, and two invade-able beachhead keeps in each realm can be teleported to with the standard 5 second wait time

For the center and invade-able beachhead keeps, the requisite amount of towers will still need to be controlled in order to port

Boating

Docks and associated NPCs in the Relic Keep zones have been removed

Center Keep and Merchant Keep docks are still available

Center Keep docks will only have boat tickets available that take players to the mouth of their own realm’s river

Merchant Keep docks will only have two boat tickets available for purchase, one to each opposing realm

The drop-off locations of the Merchant Keep tickets will be on the opposite coast from the Portal Keep

o In between Benowyc and Erasleigh in Albion

o In between Bledmeer and Blendrake in Midgard

o In between Crauchon and Bolg in Hibernia

The Merchant Keep docks will be capturable objectives. The Center Keep docks will not be capturable

A realm will be unable to purchase boat tickets that take them to an opposing realm until that opposing realm’s dock is captured

When a dock is captured in 1 realm, BOTH other realms will be able to purchase tickets and boat to that realm. In other words, when the Benowyc dock is captured by Hibernia or Midgard, both Hibernia and Midgard will be able to boat to Albion

When a Merchant Keep dock is captured, the home realm will not be able to purchase tickets from either dock

Players already on boats when a dock is captured will be able to continue their boat ride

·Merchant Keep docks will have asymmetrical encounters that control who owns them:

o Defending realm Dockmasters will be protected by 2 orange-red guards and 1 red-purple guard captain. These guards will have a small agro radius and be stationary, but once attacked will have long cast ranges and be difficult for less than half a group to defeat in a reasonable amount of time

o When a dock is captured by an enemy realm, the dock will be protected by 4 red-purple guards and 1 purple guard captain. These guards will have a small agro radius and be stationary, but once attacked will have long cast ranges and be difficult for less than a group to defeat in a reasonable amount of time

When a dock is captured, the opposing realm’s guards will immediately spawn along with their realm’s prescience node

When an enemy guard contingent is defeated, the home realm’s guards will immediately spawn along with the dockmaster and prescience node

Movement

With the removal of permanent boating and the focus on running being the primary means of travel outside of the portal ceremony we have some exciting changes coming to movement speed

The Hastener NPC buff Speed of the Realm have been increased from 150% to 170%

The bounty gem speed buffs have been increased from 150% to 176%

The last level of Sorcerer, Theurgist, Healer, Runemaster, Enchanter, and Warden speed chants have been be increased from 156% to 176%

Mount Saddles and Armors will now have a +54% speed increase attached to them

When combined with a horse (which has a 150% speed bonus) the player will be able to travel at 204% speed – or the same speed as a Skald, Minstrel, or Bard

Mounts will maintain their multitude of restrictions and disadvantages:

o Players must stand still for 3 seconds to call their mount o Shapeshifts will prevent being able to mount o Mounts will not dive o Mounted players are bigger targets o Players will be unable to mount when indoors or underground

Mount Saddles and Armors are craftable items in the Metalworking line

Mount Saddles and Armors will all have the same 54% speed increase but will be differentiated by their art and use requirements:

RvR Objectives

The Ruined Keeps of Caer Benowyc, Bledmeer Faste, and Dun Crauchon will award 5% bonus realm points for fighting in and around them

Ruined Keeps and Towers cannot be attacked or captured

The Ruined Keeps and Towers have had all of their doors opened, siege towers spawned, and wall-holes made

All realm guards have been removed inside Ruined Keeps and Towers

Postern doors inside Ruined Keeps and Towers will work for all realms

Climb points on these keeps and towers have been disabled

Capturable Docks

Docks controlled by their home realm will have a Red con Dock Guard Captain and two Orange Dock guards; control flips when the Captain is defeated.

Docks captured by an enemy realm will have a Purple con Dock Guard Captain and four Red con Dock guards; control flips when the Captain is defeated.

Capturing a dock for your realm, or re-capturing your realm’s dock, will give each player of the capturing realm within the encounter’s radius 250 bounty points as well as a Silver-Bound Chest.

Milegates

Agramon Milegate doors will now always be open

Agramon Milegate gatehouse doors now function like Cathal Valley’s gatehouse doors in that they only work for players of the milegate’s realm but can be attacked

o These gatehouse doors will now teleport players into the gatehouse instead of open like normal doors o These gatehouse doors have had their durability considerably reduced and are fairly easy to destroy with melee

Minotaur Relics

The restrictions on frontier Minotaur relics spawning and several of them requiring players to be grouped in order to hold them have been removed

They will always be spawned and available on the map now

Minotaur Relics in the frontier have had their locations and bonuses changed and one new one has been added:

Uruz (Agramon)

Provides 10% bonus to RP/XP/BP/Coin

No mob encounter

Found in the center of Decayed Lands

Farsia (Pennine):

Currently 10% Heal Bonus

Changing to 50% siege haste buff for individual holder, siege lore buff to the group, and +75% siege protection for up to 20 targets in radius of holder

Now found in between Caer Sursbrooke and Caer Erasleigh near the Great Drakes

Thatanu (Hadrian's):

Currently 10% Heal Bonus

Changing to 10% Heal bonus + 3% RP/BP/Coin/XP buff (both group-only)

Now found on the plateau in between Benowyc and Erasleigh

Benun (Jamtland):

Currently 50% Siege Protection

Changing to 50% siege haste buff for individual holder, siege lore buff to the group, and +75% siege protection for up to 20 targets in radius of holder

Now found on the hill overlooking where Crauchon Outpost (3) used to be, behind the gorbachend encampment

Individual Objectives

Royal Accountants have been placed in each realm’s new Portal Keep and will grant players 2 new Doppelganger quests!

o The new version of the quest ‘Anatomy of an Ancient Foe’ will reward players with their choice of Doppelganger Cloak o The new version of the quest ‘A New Threat in an Old Form’ will grant players a large cache of Realm Points

Doppelgangers will no longer grant RPs or BPs when killed

Doppelgangers will instead drop a stack of rare Alchemy Components, a stack of rare siege ammunition, or a Realm Shard as follows:

o Doppelgangers in Albion will also have a chance to drop an Albion Shard which can be looted by any realm o Doppelgangers in Midgard will also have a chance to drop a Midgard Shard which can be looted by any realm o Doppelgangers in Hibernia will also have a chance to drop a Hibernia Shard which can be looted by any realm o Doppelgangers in Agramon will also have a chance to have a chance to drop any of the 3 realm shards

Doppelgangers will only spawn in Agramon, the zones closest to Agramon in each realm, and the central zones in each realm

9 Doppelgangers can be up in each realm at once, out of a potential 24 locations

3 Doppelgangers can spawn on Agramon, out of a potential 10 locations

Doppelganger Lords have a chance to spawn in one of the 10 locations on Agramon

o Doppelganger lords resemble Apocolypse, Queen Kula, or Olcasgean o Doppelgangers lords have a chance to drop any of the 3 realm shards o Doppelganger lords will grant the Doppelganger Braceleot One-Time-Drop o The quest for the OTD has been changed so that all players can get it once more

/Using these Realm specific shards will grant players a random shard piece that can be combined with the other 2 types of shard pieces into a very rare item

o Albion Shards can be /used to obtain Shard 1 of 3 items o Midgard Shards can be /used to obtain Shard 2 of 3 items o Hibernia Shards can be /used to obtain 3 of 3 items

Players will need each 1, 2, and 3 shard pieces in order to obtain a complete item

o Once all 3 shard pieces for a given item type have been obtained, players can simply /use one of the shards to create the item! o Shard pieces can only be combined in this way when all 3 shard types are in a players inventory. It will not be possible to combine 2 of the 3 shards

ML10 Weapons, some ML10 armor, other rare items, new Mythirians, and rare mount armor are examples of some of the obtainable items after combining the item pieces

Labyrinth changes

The guards inside the Agramon Labyrinth towers have been removed

Zoning into the Labyrinth from Agramon now takes players to an obelisk in Nurizane's Crossroads

Exiting the Labyrinth to the Agramon tower is no longer possible. This zone line has been disabled

Charmable mobs have been added in and around each realm’s Portal keep to compensate for the mob removals on Agramon

Several Mob camps have been removed, moved, or added in Albion as noted:

o Legionnaires have been removed from their encampment near Benowyc’s dock o Legionnaire’s near Benowyc Spire have been moved further south to the aqueduct ruins. o Outlaw hunters in the trees south of Benowyc Spire have been removed o Flatland Bounders south of Caer Berkstead have been removed o Several legionnaires south of Berkstead have been consolidated to only one of the ruins. o The Pictish encampment south of Berkstead has been removed o The western basilisk youths have been moved from the north of Caer Sursbrooke to the south. o Several miscellaneous mobs have been removed in the woods south of the Albion maze and north of Caer Sursbrooke o A high level mob camp has been added nearby the Boldiam Spire

Several Mob camps have been removed, moved, or added in Hibernia as noted:

o Mobs found in the graveyard south of Dun Crauchon have been removed o The Moss monsters around Dun Bolg have been removed o The megafelids north of Dun Bolg have been removed o The giant lusus in the swamp around Dun Bolg have been removed o The grannies south of Dun Bolg have had their numbers reduced o The bananach outside Dun da Behnn have been removed o The cruiach demons have been moved to the northwest plateau in the southern half of Breifine o Several of the mobs along the coastline north of Dun Bolg have been removed

Several Mob camps have been removed, moved, or added in Midgard as noted:

o The Wyvern’s west of Nottmooor have been moved further east between Notmoor and Glenlock o The bone-eaters outside Nottmoor have been moved near where Glenlock Outpost used to be, west of Glenlock o Several Frost Giants have been removed between Bledmeer and Blendrake o The dire wolverines west of Blendrake have been removed o Several frore liches and mature wyverns have been removed from southern half of the woods north of Blendrake o The icestriders near the Passage of Conflict entrance have had their spawn radius decreased and number reduced o A new high level mob camp has been placed near the new Glenlock Outpost’s location

General Changes

Weapons:

The Astral Mephtic Fang’s disease duration has been reduced to 20 seconds

Crafting

A fix has been implemented which allows all Toxic Poisons to be crafted again

Armor:

Infernal starkakedja (acuity) sleeves have had 1 point of strength removed from them and 2% spell damage added to them to put them in line with the other realm’s versions

Spell, ability and item use timers as well as durations now take into account time elapsed while offline

Boat speed has been increased

Deathspam radius has been reduced to about 1.5 zone lengths

Added more checks to detect and lessen the effect of the “Endo” bug

The Realm War Map player location marker now shows proper player facing

PBT spells no longer affect fire and forget pets

All crafted item use timers have been reduced to 90 seconds (down from 180 seconds). This fixes the issue with celerity charges not being their proper re-use timer length

Travel Quests between PvE Hubs in the three realms have been fixed

Class Changes

Bainshee

PBAoE pulse is capped at 9 pulses now. Players will have to recast the spell after the 9th pulse fires

Mauler

The level 41 Magnetism ability, Gift of Precision, can now be cast while meleeing like the other level 41 spec Mauler abilities in Power-Strikes and Aura Manipulation

Paladin

The endurance buff line of spells can now be cast while meleeing

Skald

The endurance reduction buff line of spells can now be cast while meleeing.

Quest Changes

The Pictslayer event has entered its final and permanent stage

Pict scout camps have been removed from the mainland zones

Pict scout camps have been removed from frontier zones except for the camp in Pennine Mountains, Jamtland Mountains, and Breifine

All existing Pictslayer quests will be disabled

A new quest has been added, “The Ongoing Pictish Nuisance,” which can be obtained from Sir Yvain in Albion, Sinfjotli Sigmundarson in Midgard, and Fionn mac Cumhaill in Hibernia